various

"Colleagues Say Frog Deformity Researchers Leaped Too Soon
[Science: Biology]." Washington Post, 3 November 97, A3.
Half-page article on the scientific controversy over the
validity of the recently announced study by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) that found
abnormal frogs being produced when exposed to Minnesota
surface and ground water. Among the critics are researchers
at EPA's Mid-Continent Ecology Lab in Duluth, who replicated
the experiments but came to different conclusions:
"According to the EPA's scientists, the abnormalities
produced in the NIEHS lab resulted from a benign ion
imbalance in the water samples." Scientists quoted: Gil
Veith, associate director of the EPA National Effects
Laboratory; Andrew Blausten, a zoologist at Oregon State
University; Joe Tietge, a research biologist in the EPA's
Duluth lab; Jim Burkhart of NIEHS; MCPA research scientist
Judy Helgen; and George Lucier, director of NIEHS
environmental toxicology program. Sidebar: "What's Causing
the Deformed Frogs?" includes photographs of a deformed
northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) and a true toad (Bufo),
along with a map of the U.S. tracking amphibian
malformations by state.
"Defense Department Battling Breast Cancer [Judy Mann]."
Washington Post, 5 November 97, E13.
Column on the Department of Defense's breast cancer research
program, focusing on the four-day "Era of Hope" meeting that
started last Saturday and served as a showcase for the
studies being funded. Dennis Salmon, a member of the
Technical Program Committee and director of Clinical and
Translational Research at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer
Center at the UCLA School of Medicine is quoted discussing
the possible role of environmental factors in the etiology
of breast cancer: "`The jury is still out,' he said on the
effect of DDT and other pesticides. It's known they can
mimic estrogen's effects on tissue. `The question is whether
they can alter or damage DNA. That's being very actively
looked at.'"
Chemical Safety Board Survives Veto; Clinton Cuts Water Projects
>From Bill. Daily Environment Report, November 5, 1997, ppA-7-8.
President Clinton will let EPA spend $4 million on the
Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, but used his line
item veto to drop three minor water projects from the agency's
budget for 1998.
The chemical safety board has had three of its five members
confirmed by the Senate in the mid-1990s, the board has a quorum
and a budget, and will be able to conduct accident investigations
in the current fiscal year, according to Paul Hill, chairman of
the chemical safety board.
There is uncertainty as to how quickly the remaining board
positions will be filled, given the administration's opposition
during the budget process to eliminating the investigation
function of EPA and handing it to the board.
Hill hopes the administration will move quickly to fill the
vacancies. "I will take every opportunity to encourage that the
other positions be filled," he said.
The board was created in 1990 by Congress. Its functions are
modeled after the independent National Transportation Safety
Board, which investigates transportation accidents and makes
recommendations to federal agencies and industry on improving
safety. The chemical safety board will be responsible for
investigating the root causes of accidents at chemical and
petroleum facilities and make recommendations to EPA and OSHA.
The three items that Clinton vetoed from the EPA's budget
were water projects that cost a total of $3.1 million. Among the
cuts were a $600,000 solar aquatic waste water treatment
demonstration project in Burlington, Vermont, a $1 million
construction project for the Alabama Water and Wastewater
Institute, and $500,000 for construction of a water and sewer
line in McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania.
"Chemical Safety Panel Survives Veto Pen [Federal Page]."
Washington Post, 4 November 97, A15.
Funding for the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation
Board was not vetoed by President Clinton; $4 million in
funds will be diverted from EPA's budget to provide the
Boards' first appropriations since its creation by Congress
in 1990. "Board supporters hailed the decision, including
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg
(D-N.J.), who lives just three miles from a Lodi, N.J.
chemical plant that exploded in 1995, killing five. Labor
leaders quickly demanded that the board's first order of
business should be to reopen the Lodi investigation, which
closed last month with an EPA/OSHA report that many had
criticized as incomplete."
"Victor Mills Is Dead at 100; Father of Disposable Diapers
[Obituaries]." New York Times, 7 November 97, C25.
Victor Mills, who worked as a chemical engineer for Procter
& Gamble Company for 35 years, died on Nov. 1 in Tucson,
Ariz., at the age of 100. Mr. Mills led the team that
invented the first mass-market disposable diaper, which was
introduced as Pampers in 1961. Disposable diapers were
targeted by environmental groups as they sought to reduce
the flow of waste to landfills, but federal environmental
officials later concluded that there was no clear
environmental advantage to using either laundered cloth
diapers or paper disposable diapers.
"Academy of Sciences, Fighting to Keep Its Panels Closed, Is
Rebuffed by Supreme Court [National]." New York Times, 4
November 97, A18.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) lost its appeal to
the Supreme Court, that decided to let stand, without
comment, a ruling by a lower court that the Academy's
scientific advisory committees are subject to the 1972
Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACE). The Act requires
that the public be admitted to meetings, and that a federal
government employee be present at meetings. The NAS argues
that complying with FACE would jeopardize their
independence, and plan on appealing to Congress to exempt
NAS from the law. "Failing that, the scientists who sit on
the Academy's governing council say, they will simply not
appoint committees -- in effect threatening to bring the
Academy out on strike, since running committees is a
principal part of its business. `The ultimate outcome may be
that the country loses the capacity of getting independent
scientific advice from the Academy,' Dr. Colglazier [NAS
executive officer] said."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IATP Food Safety & Health - Vol. 2, Number 8 November 04, 1997
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
- DIOXIN LEVELS IN FRENCH DAIRY PRODUCTS CAUSE CONCERN
- NEW REPORT WARNS ABOUT HEALTH HAZARDS OF GREAT LAKES FISH
- NEW STUDY DISPUTES LINK BETWEEN DDT, PCBs & BREAST CANCER
- FERTILIZER STANDARDS PROPOSED
- BACTERIUM BECOMING MORE COMMON IN CHICKEN
- E. COLI AFFECTING BEEF SALES
- BSE, CJD APPEAR TO BE SAME DISEASE
- CLINTON PROPOSES FOOD SAFETY REFORMS FOR IMPORTS
- RESOURCES/EVENTS
[snip]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD SAFETY & HEALTH, part of IATPs "Beyond the Fatal Harvest" Campaign,
is produced by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Mark
Ritchie, President. Edited by Jackie Hunt Christensen, e-mail:
jchristensen@iatp.org. Electronic mail versions are available free of
charge for subscribers. For information about fax subscriptions contact:
IATP, 2105 1st Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55404. For information on
subscribing to this and other IATP news bulletins, send e-mail to: iatp-
info@iatp.org. IATP provides contract research services to a wide range
of corporate and not-for-profit organizations. For more information,
contact Dale Wiehoff at 612-870-0453 or send email to:
dwiehoff@iatp.org.
------------------------------------------------------------------------